Brita Addams's Blog, page 2

The summer flood in Louisiana

As I write this, the water from the long hours of heavy rain over the weekend, and the cresting of a local river, has paralyzed much of the area I live in. We were fortunate, as we didn't suffer the accumulating water, but so many did.I was affected by the Great Flood of 1977, as locals call it, when my ground floor apartment took on over a foot of water. You can't imagine how the loss of family pictures hurts until it happens. I think of that every time one of these extreme weather events happens.In the hours that lead up to Hurricane Katrina, our family packed up and evacuated west of New Orleans, to where we live now. Other than clothes, the only other things I brought were our picture albums. Funny that we thought of them at such a time--the winds had started to stir and an evacuation order had gone into effect overnight--but the pictures were the only things, other than our lives, that couldn't be replaced. Now I have a picture closet, easy access should we ever have to flee our home.The town closest to us is under water. We go there all the time. Our youngest daughter and her husband live there. Fortunately, they weren't affected either, but they have difficulty getting around with so many road closures. This picture is of the main drag. The yellow building is a Chinese restaurant we frequent.View of the main drag of Crowley, LouisianaWe are expecting more rain and with that will come a further sense of hopelessness for those who haven't yet finished sweeping the mud and gunk out of their homes and businesses. Please remember the people of Southeast Louisiana as you go about your day. They have a long recovery ahead.

Join the MM Memorial Day Scavenger Hunt

  Welcome to the 2nd annual MM Memorial Day Scavenger Hunt! 10 Days, 31 Stops, and loads of prizes!  The rules are simple: At each stop on the tour you’ll find a military themed picture with a word or words. Collect the words and figure out the secret phrase (HINT: It’s lyrics to a song). Once you think you have the correct phrase, enter it into the Rafflecopter at any of the stops. Three winners will be selected from all the correct phrases for the three prize packs. Good Luck and Happy

Are your book sales down?

    While there are myriad reasons for poor book sales, there is one thing you can change right away, if you are guilty.   Social media and I have a love/hate relationship at best. Now, as the political season ramps up to a fever pitch, the scales are tipping more toward the latter.    Authors, stop and think about what you’re doing when you take to Facebook and Twitter with your political rants. You know, the posts where you, in effect, call people out by labeling them morons and idiots if they

Brita's 2015 Favorites and Not So Muches

      Favorite book: Pent Up by Damon Suede. Hands down the best book I’ve read this year. Insightful, powerful, subtle, blatant, (didn’t make a mistake there,) and I think his best work. Yes, we’re friends, and we call each other on crap, but I have nothing bad to say about Pent Up.   Favorite TV show: Walking Dead. Watched the first five seasons in nine days. Thank you, Sebastian, (my grandson,) for the intro.   Favorite miniseries – The Bastard Executioner. I’m crazy for Lee Jones and well,

Beloved Unmasked Highly Recommended

This week I got a great (not a sufficient word) review for Beloved Unmasked from someone I highly respect. Annie Anthony is an author, but under her real name, she is an editor supreme. She was the managing editor at Musa Publishing. I have a great deal of respect for this lady and a review from her means the world to me.    Here it is. Please visit Annie's site. She is a wonderful author as well.    Beloved Unmasked   I love titles.  They are like flirtations between the author and the reader.

Trick Babies

In Beloved Unmasked, my character Picayune, later David, is the son of a prostitute and an unknown trick, john, customer, whatever you want to call him. As you might imagine, such a life wasn't easy for the real "trick babies" and much of Pic's youth parallels accounts of those who lived in thick of Storyville. Pic wasn't however, dragged into the life. He never served as a male prostitute in the book. The book is the story of his triumph over all he'd ever known.   In Al Rose's Book,

Storyville's Sporting Palaces

In Beloved Unmasked, Storyville, that notorious red-light district in New Orleans was the birthplace of my main character, Picayune, later David. He, like other "trick babies," knew the bawdy houses well.   Storyville came into existance in 1897 and after a twenty year run, the federal government unconstitutionally shut it down. That, however, is a discussion for another day. In this post, you'll read about several of the most prominent brothels in Storyville, along with a couple of anecdotes. 

The Women of Storyville

The Mansion Girls     Young, pretty, uninhibited—those were the girls that made their living in the famed red-light district, Storyville, in New Orleans. Young men also sold their bodies in the dazzling area where men of all stripes flocked when prostitution became legal in the city in 1897.   Some madams dressed their girls up in evening gowns and jewels. Others insisted, presumably to save time and therefore money, as well as give the customers a peak at what they might purchase, provided

E.J. Bellocq - Photographer to the Whores

  John Ernest Bellocq Photographer to the Whores     John Ernest (E.J.) Bellocq was a son of a wealthy white French Creole family, born in New Orleans in 1873. Before he ventured into Storyville sometime after the turn of the 20th century, he made his living photographing landmarks, as well as ships and machinery for local companies.         A figure that roamed the streets of Storyville from about 1910 to 1917 was a little man by the name of Ernest J. Bellocq (Bell-eck). Described as a

Beloved Unmasked Trivia

      I am a visual person, and as such, I often look for pictures to serve as inspiration for characters, scenes, homes, rooms, and the like. I also tap my family history for names, dates, and sometimes a germ of an idea for a scene.   Here are some bits and pieces of trivia gleaned from the pages of Beloved Unmasked.    This book is my third Tarnished novel, and book one of Cherished One, a new series in the Tarnished world.   The next book, Without Question, is Emile's story. He plays a